New York, NY - The HHC Foundation of New York City has been awarded a three-year $300,000 grant from the Ambrose Monell Foundation to expand access to neonatal developmental care in New York City's public hospitals. The HHC Foundation will use the funding to support the provision of individualized, developmentally appropriate care for premature and low birth weight babies in New York City public hospital neonatal intensive care units. The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) handle a disproportionate number of New York City's high risk pregnancies. This initiative will impact health outcomes for thousands of infants across the entire city.

The grant marks the first time the Ambrose Monell Foundation has partnered with the HHC Foundation. The HHC Foundation raises private, philanthropic support to fund innovative, evidence-based programs and services that serve unmet needs in HHC's patient population.

Mayor Bloomberg has recognized the incredible generosity of this grant and the opportunity that it represents for New York City's public hospitals. "With (the generous) funding from Ambrose Monell, our public hospitals will be able to make incredible strides in their ongoing efforts to provide the highest quality service for neonatal infants throughout the metropolitan New York area," he said.

Developmental Care is an individualized approach to care for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) patients that is designed to minimize the stress of the NICU environment through the encouragement of normal neurological development. It represents a paradigm shift away from the systems/technology driven environment of the traditional NICU experience to an infant and family centered environment that requires collaboration among the healthcare team and views the infant's family as an integral part of that team. Shortened hospitalizations and improved medical and neurological developmental outcomes have been observed with the use of individualized developmental care of the premature infant in the NICU. In addition, overall developmental outcome of the premature infant have been shown to improve by beginning parent interventions in the NICU and continuing them through early childhood.

In 2005, of the nearly 125,000 infants born in New York City, 22,000 were born at HHC hospitals. Of those 22,000, twenty percent or 4,500 were admitted to NICUs and almost 400 (9% of NICU admissions) of those infants weighed less than 1,500 grams. These very low weight infants are at increased risk of developmental delays and disabilities and can stay in the NICU for three months or more at tremendous cost. Developmental delays and unnecessarily high hospital costs are the primary problems that HHC's developmental care initiative seeks to counter.

Three HHC hospitals, Bellevue, Jacobi, and North Central Bronx, currently practice developmental care. In fact, Developmental Care has been ongoing in Bellevue's NICU since 1997. This expanded program will equalize the level of education, training and commitment to developmental care in all of our NICU's and thus improve the opportunities for better outcomes in our highly vulnerable population of infants. The purpose of the Individualized Neonatal Developmental Care and Neonatal Parental Intervention Initiative is to make developmental and family centered care the standard of care and excellence throughout HHC.

The initiative will integrate two interventions known to improve preterm outcome; individualized neonatal care in the NICU and a structured comprehensive parenting program designed to enhance parenting skills and foster positive coping strategies which can reduce anxiety in parents of VLBW premature infants. The hope is that the initiative will prove to be a successful intervention that is cost effective, with the potential to be replicated at other neonatal centers.

About The HHC Foundation

The HHC Foundation raises funds to support a wide range of citywide healthcare programs that benefit all New Yorkers. Gifts from individuals, corporations, and other foundations help strengthen programs and services in New York City public hospitals. More than 1.3 million are served each year within HHC's 11 hospitals, 6 diagnostic and treatment centers, 4 long-term care facilities and more than 80 community clinics. HHC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and all contributions are exempt from federal income taxes to the fullest extent allowed by law.

About The Ambrose Monell Foundation

The Ambrose Monell Foundation seeks to improve the physical, mental, and moral condition of humanity throughout the world by voluntarily aiding and contributing to religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational causes in New York, elsewhere in the United States, and throughout the world. To learn more about the Ambrose Monell Foundation, visit their website at http://www.monellvetlesen.org/.